Okay: I Believe You

Okay: for those who this day may be finding themselves dizzily washed up upon these intertube shores, shaded shores that hug always the dark backwaters, beaten fast and furious here by the jihad of the outraged far-flung planet: here’s, how, things, we do here.

—We are sometimes alive; sometimes we are also dead.

—Always we are sad; sometimes we are happy.

—What is mostly important is to See.

—We try never to make anything but an alternative form of “sense.”

—Eros uber alles.

—Nature is Wisdom.

—We likes us some music.

—We bend the knee to but one utterance, and that of Kenneth Patchen: “I said that you were never to kill anyone, and I meant it.”

That’s what the film It’s a Wonderful Life is about. It was only when George Bailey was presented with a world with him entirely sucked out of it that he was able to see that all the many small acts that made up his seemingly not-much-exciting days exerted enormous influence. Cumulatively, they made for a completely different Reality. And a better one.

jbou was unique, a free-lance crank, not really allied with anyone but himself. Seven years ago he wrote one of my all-time favorite dKos diaries, “I’ve Given Up Hope And It Works For Me,” which concluded with the announcement that “I am rolling up my stake and moving to Vegas and I am going to play poker for a living, drink a lot, and smoke indoors.” In the last couple years he’s been exploring life in stand-up, and would post diaries in which he tried out one-liners on Kossacks before taking them on stage. Some of them were quite good. His bojo I assume is in pursuit of the site’s apparent goal of “more and better boring.”

They are exceedingly worried about the thought that anyone might be making fun of them, not taking them seriously. Any kind of teasing is suspected of being “trolling.” Such people are targeted and relentlessly attacked, and ultimately get sick of it and overstep some rule and get kicked off.

The only way to get away with teasing them is to do it in a way that is sufficiently sophisticated that it goes over their heads.

While I’m not claiming it’s nice to tease people, there is an aura of self-importance there that does attract such. While the Democratic Party has made a few small advances domestically, they have done nothing to stop the murder of innocents abroad, only fine-tuned it some. And the disproportionate percentage of white guys on the blog illustrates this, as it does their uncomfortableness with radical thought, discussions of the pervasiveness of misogyny and racism in this culture. It’s only just recently they’ve even noticed Tim Wise, who is just brilliant and should be on the front page.

ay si, that kind is muy bueno! i tend to agree with you on teasing, though i think it’s often given much, much more value (by the teaser and the poor target) than it merits.

one of the great joys of getting older is tuning it right the hell OUT. now if you criticized me, it would sting. i’ve wept over perceived criticism that you didn’t intend that way. but if i don’t like someone (and honestly, the people i like is a short list), it doesn’t matter one iota. 😉

What they never seem to get there is that they are much less significant politically than they believe themselves to be, and much more significant personally. This latter is what they’re really good at, and the more capricious their bannings become, the deeper the mistrust will run, until finally they destroy what they have going for them that is most valuable – willingness to use the platform to build community bonds.

What’s sad, too, is the utter lack of interest in considering the possibility that a person they feel threatened by likely is fighting her or his own difficult battles. It’s easy to become Other there, if you do not follow the kabuki strictly.

Thus do they filter out true humor, imagination, empathy, and courage. They got all over Ruben Bolling at one point, I expected him to get the boot.